Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Peter · About this commentary
New Heavens and a New Earth
2 Peter 3:13-14
13 But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. · WEB
The fire is not the end of the story — what the promise actually holds is a replaced world, defined by who lives there.
But — and the conjunction carries the whole paragraph — what the promise holds is heavens and an earth made new. Everything in verses 10 to 12 was demolition, and demolition is not the promise; the promise is what is built afterward.
The expectation is not new with Peter. Isaiah has God creating new heavens and a new earth, with the former things not remembered Isaiah 65:17, and Revelation shows them arriving Revelation 21:1. The letter is quoting a hope, not inventing one.
What defines the new world is named in a single relative clause: in which righteousness dwells. Not its architecture, its geography, or its permanence — its inhabitant. The verb is the ordinary one for taking up residence, so righteousness is described as a settled resident rather than a visitor, which is precisely what the present earth is not.
Verse 14 makes the application personal and uses the vocabulary of chapter 2 in reverse. Those teachers were spots and blemishes at the feast 2 Peter 2:13; the readers are to be found without defect and blameless, and at peace. What a person expects shapes what they are found to be.
settled What this mark means